The idea was born during a splendid outdoor lunch in the sunny, dog-friendly garden of Doris Day's charming restaurant in Carmel, California, early this year, when my life was very different. "Weird Earth Orbit Tour" is a pun on "Near Earth Orbit," a term used to describe asteroids that pass close by our home planet. Back then, there were only six scheduled speaking dates. Over the months, invitations came in and my fun little speaking tour evolved into a six-country marathon which included television, radio, podcasts, museum and theater appearances, two comic book conventions, one science fiction convention, and even a stint with a local comedy improv group who acted out live skits based on stories about my life.

During my travels I completed work on my third book, My Incredibly Strange and Amazing Real-Life Adventures in the World of Comic Books, which was published this Halloween. I am on the move so very much that I have come to view the airplane and the hotel as adaptable, portable offices. Rather than space out in front of televison and film recordings I decided to use my mobile hours typing in my ever-changing workshop, and the new book's forward states:

"The bulk of this book was written on airplanes, and in hotel rooms and departure lounges, and other places where peripatetic people gather and wait, during the spring of 2015. Two chapters and all of the design were born in my offices in downtown Tucson. Some of my favorite passages were written in my quiet satellite office in the Sonoran Desert, late at night, when inspiration or understanding arrived demanding to be heard, much like the far-off freight trains that cry in the darkness as they pass through the Tucson basin en route to California or Texas."

Today, I head out on the final leg of the Weird Earth Orbit Tour which takes me first to Switzerland for a TEDx talk entitled, "Meteorites: Life, Death, and Hope on Earth," then on to Germany, and finally to the adored land of my youth -- dear old England. One of the highlights for me will be a presentation at the Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium at the National Space Center in Leicester. The planetarium is named after a famed British astronomer and one of my personal childhood heroes, without whose quirky and engaging personality I might never have become a television host and science communicator.

I love public speaking. I have been a performing artist for most of my life and presenting talks gives me the opportunity to practice two things I care deeply about: good showmanship and good science communication. I feel a kinship for young students who wish to be scientists or artists but who do not get the motivation or encouragement they crave at school ... because that was me as a kid. I want to share my life story because many of my dreams did come true and those kids need to know that their dreams can come true too, if they are willing to work for them.

When things are going well, I find it both easy and invigorating to get up on stage and give an animated talk to an appreciative audience. A good presentation produces a benign feedback loop: attendees are amused and hopefully educated, and I am energized by their enthusiasm. The real challenge comes when things are not going so well. Everyone experiences hardship and system malufuctions in their day-to-day lives and that is where my rock 'n' roll and performance background comes in so very handy. Even when equipment doesn't work, or you don't feel well, the show must go on. And you have to mean it when you get up on stage. Going through the motions doesn't work.

It is also important to reflect upon the fact that even though I am usually the only one on stage, I am just part of a hardworking team that makes such a lengthy international hejira possible. The Aerolite Meteorites and Desert Owl Productions staff are minor celebs in their own right and are affectionately known as The Space Rockettes.

I have something that the Weird Earth Orbit Tour's namesake and my fellow long-distance traveller -- the lonely near earth asteroid -- doesn't have: friends to come home to, and friends to help me along the way.